Biological materials, such as blood and tissue samples, are collected in at various locations, for example in medical practices or hospitals, and are then sent to diagnostic and research laboratories, or to private and public tissue and blood banks. Biological material is an increasingly important resource for medical diagnostics and research. With the introduction of new biotechnological and molecular genetic testing possibilities, the potential and scope of the information derived from biological material is continually expanding. The volume of biological samples obtained, collected and transported for diagnostic purposes is therefore steadily increasing.
Because of the distance between sender and recipient location, biological material is often shipped overnight. On the other hand, clinical investigations are also often carried out on the day of sample taking by local laboratories. By changing outdoor temperatures, which are associated with transports both overnight and during the day, the respective biological material may be subjected to significant temperature stress. This may adversely affect the quality of the clinical data obtained from the samples. In particular, temperature stress can lead to a pronounced instability of many typical parameters in hematology, clinical chemistry and coagulation.
The disclosure of WO2014/206531 relates to a device and a method for storing and transport of a body fluid sample. Information about the influence of fluctuating outside temperatures on each of the body fluid sample to be transported does not emerge from this art.
Furthermore, transport containers are known to be operated with dry ice as temperature-insulating material. However, dry ice sublimes during use and must be refilled before the respective container system can be used again. This is associated with high costs and a significant work effort. Further, it should be noted that a number of parameters, for example many parameters in hematology, cannot be determined when the blood sample has been frozen. As a result, the scope of application of transport containers with dry ice is limited.
Other transport containers are operated with electric heating or cooling devices for maintaining a desired temperature inside the container. Such transport containers may be susceptible to failure of the respective heating or cooling device, thus endangering operational safety. Furthermore, the scope of application is restricted due to the required electrical energy, and the electrical energy in mobile use creates high costs.
Furthermore, transport containers which are operated with dry ice or electric heating or cooling devices have a considerable weight, which is associated with a considerable handling effort and high freight charges for transport.
Provided according to aspects described herein is a container system for transport of biological material, wherein the container system reduces influences of changing outdoor temperatures on the biological material to be transported with reduced effort, is flexible in use and at the same time easy to handle. Also provided are uses of an inventive container system as well as methods of packaging.